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CanisLupusArctos · 04-01-2008, 12:04 PM

In forested areas of other parts of the country (except old growth,) officials are teaching and encouraging people to maintain their forest so that only the healthiest trees stand, and to remove underbrush and debris. This is because in many locations they learned (the hard way) that their forest protection rules were actually encouraging fires (and other problems like disease and parasites) that caused the loss of forest, a huge expense in disaster relief and insurance claims, and unfortunately human life as well.

Old growth forest really does maintain itself. In most areas of the country (including NH) we have new growth because people clear-cut everything up until the 1940s. When the logging stopped, all the seeds sprang up all at once, resulting in these trees we have now... too close to each other... over-competing for nutrients... no tree reaching its full potential... lots of dead or dying stuff... it's a situation that's not good for man nor forest.

I didn't come to this area for a ritzy subdivision shoreline or I would've chosen California or Florida... and certainly not to hear rumbling bulldozers and backup alarms or else I wouldn't have moved away from the city. I'm all for protecting the NH environment for those reasons, but in the last few years I've seen nature itself show us why over-protection is just as harmful as no protection... like when a whole forest burns down because environmentalists over-protected it. Or when those same well-meaning people cause deer to become overpopulated and lure their predators into backyards where those predators discover that people are a lot easier to catch and they don't shoot, as they always used to.

The motto "leave no trace" has its time and place in the wilderness, but otherwise we need to look at ourselves as an important part of the ecosystem: Good stewards. To be a good steward requires action, like tending a garden. Environmental policy here in the northeast is slowly forcing humans to think of themselves as "Invisible spectators" rather than active stewards. Granted, some people refuse to be either good stewards nor invisible spectators; the rest of us should rise up against them and make their actions unpopular. We don't need laws in order to do that because nobody wants to be shunned.

Some areas of the country have already tried making people invisible spectators of the environment, and they've realized (at great expense to the environment and people) that it doesn't work. We should learn from them. One might say, "Stuff that happens in those places never happens here in the northeast." Such words have been spoken many times in the last few years, and nature keeps proving them wrong.

Whether we are environmentalists or corporate builders makes no difference to nature: It's constantly proving itself a step ahead of both--often painfully. Therefore the safest place is somewhere in the middle.

04-01-2008, 12:04 PM	#61
CanisLupusArctos Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Center Harbor Posts: 1,049 Thanks: 15 Thanked 472 Times in 107 Posts	Good stewards, not invisible spectators In forested areas of other parts of the country (except old growth,) officials are teaching and encouraging people to maintain their forest so that only the healthiest trees stand, and to remove underbrush and debris. This is because in many locations they learned (the hard way) that their forest protection rules were actually encouraging fires (and other problems like disease and parasites) that caused the loss of forest, a huge expense in disaster relief and insurance claims, and unfortunately human life as well. Old growth forest really does maintain itself. In most areas of the country (including NH) we have new growth because people clear-cut everything up until the 1940s. When the logging stopped, all the seeds sprang up all at once, resulting in these trees we have now... too close to each other... over-competing for nutrients... no tree reaching its full potential... lots of dead or dying stuff... it's a situation that's not good for man nor forest. I didn't come to this area for a ritzy subdivision shoreline or I would've chosen California or Florida... and certainly not to hear rumbling bulldozers and backup alarms or else I wouldn't have moved away from the city. I'm all for protecting the NH environment for those reasons, but in the last few years I've seen nature itself show us why over-protection is just as harmful as no protection... like when a whole forest burns down because environmentalists over-protected it. Or when those same well-meaning people cause deer to become overpopulated and lure their predators into backyards where those predators discover that people are a lot easier to catch and they don't shoot, as they always used to. The motto "leave no trace" has its time and place in the wilderness, but otherwise we need to look at ourselves as an important part of the ecosystem: Good stewards. To be a good steward requires action, like tending a garden. Environmental policy here in the northeast is slowly forcing humans to think of themselves as "Invisible spectators" rather than active stewards. Granted, some people refuse to be either good stewards nor invisible spectators; the rest of us should rise up against them and make their actions unpopular. We don't need laws in order to do that because nobody wants to be shunned. Some areas of the country have already tried making people invisible spectators of the environment, and they've realized (at great expense to the environment and people) that it doesn't work. We should learn from them. One might say, "Stuff that happens in those places never happens here in the northeast." Such words have been spoken many times in the last few years, and nature keeps proving them wrong. Whether we are environmentalists or corporate builders makes no difference to nature: It's constantly proving itself a step ahead of both--often painfully. Therefore the safest place is somewhere in the middle.